A teenager whose arrest in a racially charged assault case drew thousands of protesters to his rural Louisiana hometown was in a hospital early Tuesday after a shooting that his lawyer said was accidental.

Mychal Bell was cleaning a gun when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the shoulder, his attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing, told CNN. He had surgery Monday night at a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, and has not yet been able to talk, she said.

Monroe police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten said the wound was not life-threatening.

Bell was one of the Jena high school students charged as adults with attempted murder in a case where he ultimately pleaded to assault in juvenile court, following the hanging of a noose in a tree in the school courtyard. It was a pretty ugly case, and Bell was the one who went to jail, while two of his Jena 6 mates went to the BET Awards.